Rycliff Vitner

Player

Name: Elly
Contact: A Duck#0728 on Discord, nightlocke, PMs
18+? Yes
Other Character: Yotsuyu goe Brutus

Character

Name: Rycliff Vitner (He goes by Cliff.)
Canon: OC
Canon point: After his siblings heroically return from Idastria.
Age: 17

Canon history:Magic definitely exists on Cliff's world. The most powerful individuals, be they magic users or exemplary in another fashion, tend to take over massive tracts of land. In this way, they become Monarchs of those particular lands, to be benign rulers or tyrants at their leisure and whim. Monarchs also tend to exist in a cold war sort of situation; usually, despite personality clashes, they don't go to war often, because it can literally be a world-shaking experience when it happens. They are both rather hard to kill as a rule, and they also have some sort of unspoken agreement against outright hostility. Which is probably why it's so rare. It also often ends in a Monarch's death, when the occasional war happens...

Recently, however, within the past thirty years or so, there was quite a shake-up in the hierarchy, due to a certain Monarch harrowing a pair of talented elemental mages in his acquisition of the lands of the Firesoul, millenia before.

The Monarch who became Cliff's father, Athros Vitner, was one of those mages. During the course of the Demon's war, his friend Katya lost her life, and he literally burnt himself past death, to some sort of strange undeath. He became the Dead One, called such both because he had something called "dead magic" that basically devoured any other type of magic sent at it, and also because he was nothing short of a living skeleton, powered by said dead magic. It wasn't properly understood, even by the immortal Monarch researcher known as the Endless, despite his best efforts. It was Athros' vendetta against the Monarch known as the Demon that led to him meeting Cliff's mother.

In truth, it was the tale that Cliff's mother came from an entirely different world than their own that made Narancelia an oddity, as well as her looks and the power of her magic. The only proof currently known is that Narancelia Draktha'aris was a virtual unknown until she was captured by the Monarch named the Chimera, who tortured and brutalized her in an attempt to have her either become its lieutenant, steal her magic, or kill her outright. (Any of those outcomes would have been acceptable to it.) She had not been ignorant of the way the Chimera terrorized its people, either--much the same way her murderous rival, Lusiphral Alcoran, had terrorized the people of Idastria, her homeland, before slaying her. Even she was not entirely sure how she'd arrived, but the fact that she was not actually dead warranted Nara's decision to slay the Chimera in turn, and take his lands for her own. But in doing that, she needed help--and also entered the Demon's crosshairs, as the Chimera was created by the Demon, centuries ago. She managed to befriend the prickly Dead One, and they banded together to eliminate both the Demon and the Chimera, and in doing so, Narancelia used her magic to reverse the damage that Athros had done to himself years before. The Demon's lands were divided between them, and Nara set about repairing the damage that the Chimera did to his lands and his people.

They may have fallen in love along the way. Athros certainly didn't expect that...

Another anomaly here is that Monarchs don't have children. Part of that is because most Monarchs aren't quite human, or aren't human at all (see the Dragon or the Bladewolf as poignant examples, there). So when Narancelia managed to give the Dead One back his humanity, and worse, they fell in love and had kids, that sent the land into a bit of turmoil. The Endless wanted to do research. The Rage, the only one of the Monarchs who actually was anything close to human, decided to try the same trick--though his wife is supposedly human, with no magic to speak of...

The Bladewolf calls that a step in the right direction.

The planet itself is somewhat similar to Earth, were Earth actually imbued with magic, and the ensuing chaos gave rise to fantastical creatures as well as mundane ones. There are theories that the world itself was a nursery for the Dragon and his kind. Of course, the Dragon isn't telling, and the only other one who might have an idea is the Bladewolf. And frankly, since he's a monster who eats people...no one really wants to ask him.

History: Rycliff Vitner is a fluke. Monarchs--specifically of the type where he's from--aren't supposed to have children. Apparently his parents never got that memo, or his father cheerfully burnt it to bits while cackling maniacally. He figures either are likely. In any case, he's not supposed to exist. But he does anyway. So what's a guy to do?

Go to school with his twin sister, and be schooled to power, in his case. Except he's a bit cranky, because Katya got all the charisma, and he got to be gangly and nerdy and just...him. She's all breezy and airy and cool, and Cliff feels more like a lump of mud. Even more ironic because he's a geomancer. So he should be okay with that, right? Being a clod?

Except he's not, thanks.

But because he and his sister are generally opposites, her being an aeromancer and him being a geomancer, they trained together and that did help him learn to control his powers and sort of get around the fact an aeromancer doesn't really get hurt by rocks, and geomancers don't get pushed around by air a whole lot. (Water and fire, on the other hand, well. We won't talk about how his older sister Ellyn bullies him a bit...)

He and his twin sister followed in their father's footsteps by attending the illustrious Elemental College, where young elementalists of all four persuasions are taught their powers. They first started attending at a young age, and recently graduated. During this time, two of his older siblings, his brother Eiros and his sister Ellyn, actually managed to go to their mother's home world, and solve her murder--the one that occurred there, since Nara is perfectly fine on their world.

That chapped his hide something fierce. Why did they get to go out and do fantastical things? Worse, his sister had met a boy, and they began a whirlwind romance. Jealousy has reared its ugly head, and Cliff isn't...quite sure what to do about that. They'd always been something of a united front before, they had their twin bond (which isn't much more than mild empathy between them), and that was enough. Not any more. At least, not for Katya. He'd like to be known for something more than just being Athros Vitner's youngest son, or his gemcutting.

So what's a guy to do? He hasn't even really done anything but be a kid and go to school, and he's afraid he's boring. That sounds like a fate worse than death.


Personality:

*Stubborn: Sometimes, it's easier to go around or work with people to get a task done. This concept hasn't...quite made its way into Cliff's brain. He can be very obstinate and set in his ways, and it can take quite a bit for him to change his mind if he really believes in a thing. (When he had his geomancy, it also meant he could be hard to move, too, but the former case remains.)

*Honest: He's not quick-witted and able to come up with a witty comeback. Any dishonest answers out of him take some serious thinking, and so Cliff has decided that the best policy, even if it's fracking uncomfortable, is to be honest. This can make him a bit of a straight man to pranksters, but that's life, he guesses.

*Determined: Generally, once Cliff has put his mind to a thing, he's going to see it through, for good and ill. It could be said that this has something to do with his being stubborn, too, but it's less mulishness and more having decided his course, and being intent on finishing it.

*Slow to Anger: Like it says on the tin. Which isn't to say that he has no temper whatsoever and doesn't get angry at all. He can, and he does, and when he finally blows his top, like a volcano, watch out!

*Reserved: His sister was always the talkative one; though he doesn't say one word when more are needed, Cliff isn't the garrulous type. Indeed, he's a bit on the shy and retiring side, though he's friendly enough when approached.


Always Keep In Mind: Cliff is really trying to find himself. He hasn't had a whole lot expected of him, and so he still is uncertain of his place, both on his world and in general. Has to be proper, considering he's the scion of a pair of Monarchs and thus a well-respected family on his world, but he's still a stupid teenager. Sometimes he finds it hard to keep his cool, and sometimes it's hard to not make bad decisions. It sucks.

Samples

Log Sample: exhibit a | exhibit b

Questions:

What do you want to study at Diatu Magicademy? Magic is the main thing, right? So that. If anything else catches my interest, I'll probably pick that up, too.

If you knew you could go back to the moment you left, would you leave immediately or continue your studies for a while? ...you mean they're not going to miss me at all? Mom always liked to say that knowledge was power, so why not study more then? I might even get good at it!

If your enemy was at Diatu Magicademy, how would you react? I'm not even sure I've got enemies...but I'd try to play it cool, probably. If I could.

When is it acceptable to resolve a dispute by force? Um. It's to be avoided at all costs, if you can. Especially if you're stronger than them, it almost behooves you to try not to crush them into the ground, you know?

What should the supreme goal of any wizard be? [Cliff thinks about that one for a bit. Aren't his parents kind of like wizards, here?] To be responsible with their powers. To be as careful as they can with them, and to protect those who don't have powers like that. And make life easier, if they can.

Special Considerations

Your Special Something: Your Rare Familiar is:

Rounder
To all appearances, Rounder is a perfectly-smooth sphere of marble, about a foot in diameter. It rolls around, albeit not at the speed of sound, to fulfill any duties necessary for its master -- and when rolling around is not enough, it opens up to deploy arms or tools as necessary. Rounder has a seemingly unlimited ability to store things inside its body, so long as they are small enough to fit into him to begin with.

Your House: Gekronus Maius.

Powers: He's a geomancer--not your 14th century divination junkie, but more like the Earthbenders of the Avatar series (and don't think blue aliens, here, please!). The elemancers of the Elemental College go at least one step further, however, and more than learning to control one's element, students are taught to become their element, which means that when he has his powers, Cliff can actually meld with the earth, as well as control it. It's like another extension of himself. He can attack with it, use it to shield himself, make creatures of rock or stone or mud from it and control them--anything he can think of, really. He's also used his power in his gemcutting hobby. I'm not totally invested in him getting his powers back, though. Or if so, really slowly, since there's...a lot.

Items: Nothing I can think of, here. He's coming in with the clothes on his back, and a small bag of semi-precious gemstones, since gemcutting's one of his hobbies. He'll probably offer to teach a beginning class for that at some point, if he can find tools for it.

Anything Else: Any questions or considerations as we review your application?